You may remember that I shared a Chocolate Persian Love Cake recipe with you a few weeks ago?
Well, I was so intrigued by the process of making that cake, and I enjoyed the mousse-like filling and crunchy base of the Chocolate version so much, that I thought I had better get to making an original Persian love cake.
It’s such a lovely dessert, and so simple to put together! The base has a lovely crunch, and the almond and nutmeg flavours really come through in the moist, soft, fluffy cake.
I topped mine with mascarpone cream (my new favourite topping/frosting/dessert), fresh figs and chopped pistachios, which I think added a lovely lightness and freshness to the dense cake.
You can check out a little time lapse video of me making the cake, from start to finish, on Instagram here!
- PERSIAN LOVE CAKE
- 360g almond meal
- 200g caster (superfine) sugar
- 200g brown sugar
- 120g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tbsp nutmeg, freshly grated if possible!
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 250g natural yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- TOPPING
- 150g mascarpone
- 150g heavy cream
- 2 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla paste
- 5 figs, cut into eighths
- 2 - 3 tbsp pistachios, roasted and chopped
- PERSIAN LOVE CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line the base and sides of a 9 inch springform tin with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, crumble together the almond meal, sugars, butter, nutmeg and sea salt until the mixture resembles wet sand.
- Press half the crumble into the base of your tin.
- Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla to the remaining crumble and use a spatula to beat the mixture together until it's well combined.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin.
- Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until lightly puffed and golden.
- Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin.
- TOPPING
- To make the mascarpone cream, whip together the mascarpone, cream, sugar and vanilla paste in a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment until it holds medium peaks.
- Spread a little of the mascapone cream over the top of the whole cake. Put the rest of the cream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe two rings of stars around the outside edge of the cake.
- Arrange the figs in circles in the centre. Pipe more cream to fill in any gaps between the figs. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.
- Serves 10 - 12. Keep refrigerated.
- Happy baking!
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller.